LAKEVILLE — Communicating well with all stakeholders, building relationships and avoiding a top-down approach are some of the keys to a superintendent’s success.

On Wednesday, Somerset school district Superintendent Richard Medeiros told Freetown-Lakeville regional school board members that he believes he has all of these qualities, as well as sound experience leading Somerset for the past nine years. He said he would tap into these qualities often and effectively if selected as the next superintendent of Freetown and Lakeville schools.

Medeiros is one of the three finalists for the position. He is the first of three finalists to be interviewed.

On Friday, the district will interview Wareham’s director of curriculum and development, Janice Rotella, and on March 4, Old Rochester Regional District Assistant Superintendent Elise Frangos.

Medeiros’ interview focused on some common themes — team-building and appointing and retaining quality people. He also claims to advocate a student-centered approach, touting the fact that he visits every school in his district twice a week. In fact, he noted how impressed he is with Freetown-Lakeville’s campus-like layout, with three schools on adjacent properties. He said this will allow him to interact regularly with staff and students, using his “communication skills” to build partnerships.

He said part of the school’s motto struck him because it mirrors his own philosophy “that people and practice make a difference.” He said having the right personnel is much more important than technology and other initiatives.

“If you have great teachers and greater administrators with great support staff, you will have great schools,” he said, adding, “It is about the delivery of instruction, it is about high expectations and it is about creating a school culture.”

He said that, if he is appointed as the next district superintendent, he will employ a collaborative approach and try to get all administrators and staff to buy into a plan to better the district.

“You can’t have a school or an individual not buy into what you are doing,” he said.

Medeiros said he would take some time to build trust and then set priorities for the district. He said Freetown-Lakeville has many positive attributes and will not require an overhaul. However, he noted that the status quo is not acceptable, either. He said he would work hard with staff and administrators to identify some new priorities for the district.

Medeiros cited his experiences as an administrator in a regional district. Medeiros has spent the past nine years as Somerset’s school chief. He had served as school principal in Somerset and has served as an administrator in Dighton-Rehoboth schools, chalking up leadership experience in a regional setting.

He said regional districts operate in a unique manner, with different communities with different needs working together.

Just as he wants to set some educational goals and work with stakeholders toward achieving them, Medeiros said he would apply that mentality to budgeting.

He said superintendents and support staff must identify some financial priorities. He said if they try to fund everything to the maximum degree, it will lead to credibility issues, especially with local selectmen and financial advisory members.

“Your budget is a reflection of what your priorities are,” he said.

Medeiros said he is also familiar with some changes to education, such as the new educator evaluator system, PARCC testing and Common Core initiatives. He said that for educator evaluations, he would recommend the use of a software system to limit the paperwork and evaluation time used by administrators.

School personnel will visit Somerset next week and talk to people within that school district about Medeiros. Medeiros expressed confidence that they will reveal that he has been a transparent and accessible leader.

Medeiros recently visited with school staff and other stakeholders in Freetown and Lakeville.

The Somerset School Committee recently voted unanimously not to enter negotiations to extend the contract for Medeiros, a principal and superintendent in Somerset for nearly 20 years, according to Herald News reports.

That committee recently voted to restructure the job as a superintendent/business manager.

Last year, the Somerset Berkley Regional School Committee offered Medeiros only a one-year contract extension as superintendent of the new district. He declined it, seeking two years.

Berkley’s superintendent, Thomas Lynch, was then named interim regional superintendent on July 1. Since that time, the Somerset district has been paying Medeiros’ entire salary of about $131,000.

Medeiros, 49, of Rehoboth, said he’s been seeking long-term security to continue in a superintendent’s role, as he has for the past nine years in Somerset.

Tonight, Medeiros will be the last of three finalists to interview for the Randolph superintendency.

This article was corrected to reflect that Richard Medeiros is the superintendent of the Somerset school district.